Corporate giveaway won’t bring coal back
Today President Trump signed an executive order to demolish climate and energy policies set by the previous administration — eliminating some altogether and instructing regulators to rewrite key rules related to energy development. While the focus of the executive order is dismantling the Clean Power Plan, two provisions will particularly impact Western states and taxpayers across the country — lifting the temporary moratorium on federal coal leasing and rewriting rules designed to limit methane waste during natural gas production.
Oil, natural gas, and coal provide an important source of revenue to American taxpayers. For example, 40 percent of all coal mined in the United States is mined on federal land. Similarly, production on federal land accounts for 5 percent of the nation’s oil supply, along with 11 percent of our natural gas supply. In years past, an antiquated system of policies ensured oil, gas and coal companies received sweetheart deals for resource extraction, while taxpayers were consistently shortchanged. The Obama administration established several new rules to ensure taxpayers receive a fair share from energy development on public lands. Unfortunately, two of those rules stand to be erased under Trump’s new order.